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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Re: [KDE Usability] Oxygen animations configuration
From:       Leo Spalteholz <leo.spalteholz () gmail ! com>
Date:       2009-11-30 23:52:44
Message-ID: 7c98fd570911301552o3bfcbdadw4b8e4bc9df38aaa0 () mail ! gmail ! com
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On Mon, Nov 30, 2009 at 3:19 PM, Hugo Pereira Da Costa
<hugo@oxygen-icons.org> wrote:
> Hi Leo,
>
> Unfortunately I agree with all your points.
>
> Now: the first option is the one and only you ask for. (it is "turn all
> on" or "all off").
>
> The other seven options ... I added them while adding new animations.
> There is "some sort" of reasoning between them: tab transition for
> instance, is the only one that can possibly trigger repaints of large
> portions of the screen. All others are very local.
>
> I won't try to motivate each of the options. I left it this way because
> of lack of time and poor usability skills (lack of time being: coding
> furiously, changing things often, and always postponing the moment where
> I should ask usability guys for help. My bad.).

Hi Hugo.  Thanks for the reply, and I apologize again for the harsh
tone of my initial post.   Overall the work you did on animations is
awesome, I just saw this and felt I needed to raise the issue.

> I think On/Off is too drastic (due to the limitation above):

Ok.  Given the realities of timelines and other pressures, I can see
that in the short term it might be necessary to keep some options.

For the tab transition, the problem is people with slow graphics
cards, or people with bad graphics drivers (that's me!).
I would argue that if a significant number of people will have issues
with this animation, then it should not be included in the default
theme.   If people see that switching tabs by default on KDE is really
slow, they will walk away with a very negative impression of the
project.  Graphics driver performance is a sore point for many people,
and I think the default theme needs to be conservative in terms of its
requirements until this situation improves.
So as a quick fix, Tab animations could remain an option, with the
future goal of removing it once there is feedback as to its
performance or utility.

Then label transitions.  There is a problem of a some obscure
application updating a label often and having the animation go beserk.
 I think that is the app's responsibility to fix, but in the short
term the option to disable this particular animation would give some
apps a workaround until they have a chance to fix their program.

All the other options I really don't see a need for.  They are
harmless in terms of processor resources, even for poor graphics
cards.

I don't see why they couldn't be removed for 4.4.  Should lessen the
load on translators, and otherwise not affect much.

Disclaimer: I am not a usability expert.  Just took a few grad classes
on the subject and do some GUI design at work.  I'm just applying
guidelines and best practices as I understand them from the design
field.

Leo
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